Saturday, July 23, 2016

Water and Weeds

If you've ever pulled weeds, you know how frustrating it is when the tops break off and the root is left in the ground where you know it's going to grow a bigger, badder weed in a week or two. If you've ever had kids help you pull weeds, you know how hopeless the battle is to not break the weed tops off all over the yard you're trying to keep nice for them by pulling the weeds in the first place. Adding insult to injury is when the kids discover the whimsical, snowy looking weed blossoms that are so easy and fun to blow all over the place. It's a loosing battle.


Okay. So it's entirely possible that I'm too uptight about my nice little patch of green here in the Arizona mountains but it's a vice I'm not ready to give up yet. And doing it in the name of the kids (even if they're not so secretly working against me) is how I'm going to keep justifying it for now. But I do have an ally, monsoon rains. What's normally a steep, uphill battle (steep enough it would be more accurate to call it a wall I bang my head against) becomes a joyfully doable chore when the ground is thoroughly soaked. While the grass still holds its ground, the weeds slide out so easily even a kid can remove them successfully.

Our heart is easily compared to a yard full of weeds and the Bible frequently compares God's Spirit to water, an inexhaustible supply of it accessible through the spigot of prayer and scripture even when there's no rain. What's impossible to remove under normal circumstances and even made worse by our efforts becomes a satisfying and successful endeavor when the ground is well watered. But even after we've achieved a nice patch of green, keeping it nice still takes the diligence of watering and pulling weeds (You'd be surprised how much can blow in from your neighbors heart... I mean yard). You might end up wanting to offer them some water and possibly the help of your children... as long as there's no fuzzy blooms on their weeds.